For those of you who have kept an eye on my own WB thread I made mention of other on going builds. One is the 51xx and here is the other. I've been itching to build a Finney Light Pacific for some time but could never justify it would be a bit of a stretch to see one of these in the East Riding!! So I was over the moon when I was approached to build one of these iconic Southern machines. The build will be Blackmore Vale as running 3rd June 1960. This will incorporate the 4500G tender with the high raves, prior to being cut down in 1961. Research has found a cracking picture of her at Exeter in June 61 in this state;
Copyright is Gerald Robinson, downloaded from Filckr

I've also got a few other pictures to work from, a couple from Roger Scanlon, already posted elsewhere;
This is too early as there is no AWS fitted as yet, but still a great front end view
Here you can clearly see the AWS has been fitted and the tender is still high sided
And finally this great atmospheric shot. One of @oldravendale own collection

So onto the build. I'm not going to do a full blow by blow account as @mickoo has already done a fantastic job on his build, but I will show progress here and detail how the builds will differ. I'm already quite a way on with the frames;
The frames are construction as per the instructions. The three point compensation has been used along with the Finney Hornblocks. The system is simple, straight forward and robust. The rocking beams are not fully fitted as yet as they may need minor adjustment for ride height. The front section is steel wire sleeved with brass tube;
And the rear is the usual Finney set up;

The main frames are fully finished, theres the front brake brackets to fit and the bogie splashers. The ash pan has been completed all but for the damper linkages, which will be the next job. This area is probably one of the most difficult things I've constructed from etched parts but well worth the effort in the end.
I've reached my picture limit so onto the next post.

In addition to the work on the frames i've also constructed the bogie and delta truck;
The bogie incorporates it's own side control, which works really well. I have added a vertical spring as an addition to keep downward pressure on the bogie as it has a tendency to ride up in the curves. The Delta truck has a piece of 0.8mm steel wire for both side control and downward force. On advice i'm going to deviate from that and use a different system. More on that later. So a quick shot of progress so far, more to follow soon I hope;

I've got one of these in the to do pile which I suspect will be either 34033 or 34066. Will be interested to see how you get on with the build. To be honest the prospect of my own build scares me somewhat...

I've got one of these in the to do pile which I suspect will be either 34033 or 34066. Will be interested to see how you get on with the build. To be honest the prospect of my own build scares me somewhat...

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I know how you feel Chris........trust me, be afraid, be very afraid (more to follow)

Whilst the heavy duty crankpins are away being turned down I can't do anything with the brake rigging etc so I set to work on the rear injectors. About this time @Rob Pulham posted a thread on some excellent pictures of Winston Churchill at Shildon, I duly had a good look around them and noticed the ash pan is the original Southern one. This gave me that enormous sinking feeling. A quick look at Blackmore Vale confirmed that she was fitted the same, in fact still in as of now. WHY OH WHY did I build the bloody BR ash pan?? Probably some misconceived idea that all Light Pacifics were so fitted later in life. In my defence I built the BR ash pan on holiday in France in a frenzy over a couple of days. Here's the link to Rob's pictures to show what it should look like;

I've set the dampers as per Winston Churchill, which to me look like they're just cracked open, which works for forward running if I remember? Forward running, front cracked open, rear fully open?? Having now studied the pictures for some time this area of the kit really captures the prototype perfectly, down to pressing the rivet out to represent the round bolt head on the lower damp door stop. Like the BR ash pan this takes some time but to be honest I found it the easier of the two.

Next onto the injectors and steam generator;

What you see here are ten individual cast parts and four etched parts to build this assembly. @oldravendale leant me the 'Book of West Country and Battke of Britain Pacifics' as being a North Eastern man I have no research material on the class. The rear of the book has a number of detail pictures (presumed from an accident report) of 253 Squadron on her side. These pictures are great for modelling this area. The pipe runs are yet to be fitted as the casing needs to be in place to get these accurate. When the time comes I'll refer to these again. My next job on the frames was to start making up the axle box springs but more on this another day.

To break up the monotony of laminating the axle box springs I decided to make a start on probably the most difficult area (purely my perception) of the build. I wanted to get it out of the way as it's the one part I was loosing sleep over. And this is why I know where @Pencarrow is coming from.

The instructions advised to have a test run on the other spare cab, so out came the 9' cab and away I went with the rivet press and rolling bars. Bugger me I trashed the thing, intentionally I might add. There are rows of very close double rivets and rivets at the edge of the side sheets, these were very difficult to work. I tried a number of rivet press combinations and found one that worked. So I was now happy with my rivet pressing. With some card added to protect the rivet definition I whizzed it through the bars and was happy. With that exercise complete I moved onto my chosen cab.

If this is your first time at this kit PLEASE ruin a spare cab first as you'll probably bugger up your chosen one if you go straight at it.

The cab for Blackmore Vale is the 8' 6" V Cab. Being one of the early conversions my chosen cab is the @mickoo Finney7 addition to the kit. So off I went pressing rivets and rolling away. I had good reason to loose sleep. This is a difficult area and not for the faint hearted. That said if you take your time and have the odd break it goes really well. The kit is designed with helpful fold lines on the tight curves to assist forming, these work really well but can catch you out. One tip, don't roll onto then when you roll the top of the cab roof. You end up with a nice straight fold line, which can be removed but is a total pain! Also when you form the tighter curves be really careful and tease it round a bit at a time, otherwise you can end up with a hexagon type bend. I also wouldn't risk annealing any of the cab at all, I'm not a fan in any case but it's a really bad idea with this cab.

Those lessons out of the way the cab was a joy to build. The shape around the V windscreen is complex to bend and I thought this would be a problem area. Not so. When it came to fitting the windscreen front they dropped straight into place. Everything fitted perfectly, which is impressive kit design. I grabbed a quick photo on my phone to show you;

The kit provides a centre strengthening plate for these front screens and the rear. This is a neat idea which makes life much easier. So the main cab frame together, it doesn't look much but there's a few hours work here;
The other side with the windscreen cleaned up. I decided on this side to fold out the sight screen to add strength to the window bar. I would recommend against this until the last minute as all you end up doing it bending it more when you lay the cab on it's side;
It's difficult to photograph the cab in brass as the light catching it makes it look worse than it is. The windscreen curves are smooth I promise The customer has also chosen to fit the cab roof framing, supplied as an extra. Having read @mickoo thread I maybe should have fitted this in the flat. I opted not too as I thought it would over complicate the rolling process. I chose instead to fit it at this stage before I go any further. I first rolled it to shape, using thick card to support the framework, whilst still on the fret;
I then tried to get it into the cab. The fitting of the rear floor makes this impossible, but you have to fit the floor to finish the main cab structure. The answer, like Mick's build was to split it into three. I carefully nipped the lower sides off, fitted the roof section first, centralising with the cab roof vent and then the two sides. This took a good couple of hours and a further hour to clean up. I personally think it's really worth the effort for the extra detail;
Ok so the clean up's not perfect but it is really difficult getting in with the scratch brush

I couldn't resist sitting the cab on the rear to grab a shot of the Light Pacific profile;
Next back to the axle box springs in between cab detailing,

To be honest there are no shortcuts or easy ways out with a few sub assemblies on the BLP. These being the cab, ashpan and brake rigging.

Strongly recommend you consider making the floor modifications I did to allow the pipework under the cab to remain part of the chassis and make the backhead modifications to ease fitting and removeal, if not for yourself then for your families harmony

Also before you get much further ahead try and add the fittings under the cab, turbo generator on the left and I think two oil pots, one each side, they're tucked up in under there and harder to add once other things start to get added.

Mick - that looks superb. I particularly like the internal framing which was not available when Mick made mine for the Finney7 stand (and for me to play with). Come to that neither were the wheel overlays. Both make a significant improvement to the fidelity of the build

... I decided to make a start on probably the most difficult area ... of the build.

The instructions advised to have a test run on the other spare cab... There are rows of very close double rivets and rivets at the edge of the side sheets, these were very difficult to work. I tried a number of rivet press combinations and found one that worked. So I was now happy with my rivet pressing.

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I think that you owe your readers an insight into "found one that worked", for example:- what rivet tool are you using? in what order did you form the rivets / the different rows?

... The kit is designed with helpful fold lines on the tight curves to assist forming, these work really well but can catch you out. One tip, don't roll onto them when you roll the top of the cab roof. You end up with a nice straight fold line, which can be removed but is a total pain! Also when you form the tighter curves be really careful and tease it round a bit at a time, otherwise you can end up with a hexagon type bend.

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I can see why you did not wish to get the half-etch area into the rollers... there appear to be (at least) eight such areas on the cab side/roof/side part visible in your "cab interior" photos of earlier today. So, please explain what you mean by "tease it round a bit at a time".

Only mention it because it was your cab that was used to develop the inlay, test fitting and installation

In fact it was used to test the beta one with blanking plates that covered the half etch relief lines to aid forming, and the production authentic one that leaves those lines exposed, thus requiring filling with milliput before the inlay is added

The wheel overlays were not fitted because I was not comfortable with the quality we were attaining at that time.

Strongly recommend you consider making the floor modifications I did to allow the pipework under the cab to remain part of the chassis and make the backhead modifications to ease fitting and removal.

Also before you get much further ahead try and add the fittings under the cab, turbo generator on the left and I think two oil pots, one each side, they're tucked up in under there and harder to add once other things start to get added.

The production authentic one (graham's note - cab frame overlay ) that leaves those lines exposed, thus requiring filling with milliput before the inlay is added...

Yup, cab floor and backhead detailed in the instructions, which are free to download from the Finney7 site if you wish to get up to speed and follow the build. Turbo generator and oil pots was a personal preference.

I really didn't think that the show loco had the internal cab strapping. I'll have to take another look! As for the wheels, I remember their being some concern about the first efforts and I thought the cab detailing was at the same time.

I think that you owe your readers an insight into "found one that worked", for example:- what rivet tool are you using? in what order did you form the rivets / the different rows?

I can see why you did not wish to get the half-etch area into the rollers... there appear to be (at least) eight such areas on the cab side/roof/side part visible in your "cab interior" photos of earlier today. So, please explain what you mean by "tease it round a bit at a time".

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Hi Graham,

My rivet press is a GW press, the male fitting is the larger of the two and the female is smallest ( I believe this is for 4mm modelling mostly ). The inspection cover on the cabled had the internal row pressed first followed by the external. The remainder were pressed in no particular order, I just took my time and worked free hand to the guide indents. I did though complete a full row between checks and made sure that the male fitting was only raised enough to allow the cab to move. I found that allowing the full range of movement with the press lead to too much inaccuracy in the straight lines.

"Tease is around a bit" was more aimed at the section in front of the windscreens. It's very easy to over form a bend line so it becomes just that. Almost a 30 degree bend. I found the best way to avoid this was to, a bit at a time form each part of the reverse curve, in a "teasing it around manner"

I'm also making notes to help with the instructions. More observations and tips in the build as they're already comprehensive,

To be honest there are no shortcuts or easy ways out with a few sub assemblies on the BLP. These being the cab, ashpan and brake rigging.

Strongly recommend you consider making the floor modifications I did to allow the pipework under the cab to remain part of the chassis and make the backhead modifications to ease fitting and removeal, if not for yourself then for your families harmony

Also before you get much further ahead try and add the fittings under the cab, turbo generator on the left and I think two oil pots, one each side, they're tucked up in under there and harder to add once other things start to get added.

Click to expand...

Fair play pal

I'm definitely following your lead on the cab/backhead mounting modifications, makes perfect sense and will make my life (and the families) much happier.

I have the oil pots and other its sat on the bench to add. I'll get those bits knocked off before i move further, oh and that bloody drawbar too